Three times more migrants have died or disappeared this summer while trying to reach Europe by sea, warned Unicef this Friday. According to the UN agency’s count, between June and August, at least 990 people were shipwrecked in the central Mediterranean, the most dangerous maritime route in the world, three times more than the 334 migrants who lost their lives over the same period. in 2022.
If the total share of children is not quantified (UNICEF recorded around ten per week in July), there are 11,600 “unaccompanied minors” who attempted to go to Italy between January and mid-September 2023 in aboard makeshift boats, or 60% more than over the same period last year (7,200), the agency told AFP.
“The Mediterranean has become a cemetery for children and their future. The tragic toll of children dying in search of asylum and safety in Europe is the result of political choices and a failing migration system,” deplores Regina De Dominiciswho coordinates the subject at Unicef.
Twice as many deaths since the start of the year
In total, the UN High Commission for Refugees summarized Thursday during a meeting of the Security Council devoted to the crisis in the Mediterranean, this brings to more than 2,500 migrants dead or missing between January 1 and September 24, 2023, up 50% year-on-year.
The spectacular images of arrivals in mid-September on the small Italian island of Lampedusa have brought back into focus the burning issue of European cooperation in the management of migratory flows. With 8,500 people who landed on the island in three days, more than its total population, the arrivals sparked a local crisis in Lampedusa and a political storm in Italy, which has been increasing emergency and firm measures since.
Italy wants to place minors in adult structures
Latest example to date: the government of Giorgia Meloni, at the head of a right-wing and far-right coalition, approved Wednesday evening in the Council of Ministers a draft decree which opens the possibility of placing unaccompanied minors in more of 16 years in adult structures and to have them undergo medical examinations to determine their age. The provision is considered “worrying” by Unicef.
If the project must still be approved by Parliament, where the ultra-conservative government has an absolute majority, the text authorizes “anthropometric measurements” and examinations such as x-rays to determine the age of young migrants. Objective: “It will no longer be possible to lie about your true age” to avoid possible expulsion, warned Giorgia Meloni on his Facebook page.
European discussions this Friday in Malta
On the European scene, the situation in the Mediterranean has relaunched discussions in Brussels around the migration pact, mired in dissension since its presentation in 2020 by the European Commission. The European reform project provides in particular for a strengthening of external borders or even a solidarity mechanism between the Twenty-Seven in the care of asylum seekers. The leaders of the nine Mediterranean countries of the EU are still due to meet this Friday in Malta to agree their positions on this issue.
“The adoption of a European-wide response to support children and families” is “absolutely necessary to prevent more children from suffering,” insists Regina De Dominicis.